Dhaka
(AsiaNews) - Two girls were arrested in Bangladesh yesterday for marrying each other. Shibronty Roy Puja,
a Hindu of 16, and
Sanjida Akter, Muslim
21, had run away from
the district of Pirojpur -
where they both lived - on 14 July to reach Dhaka,
the capital. In the country, homosexuality is illegal and punishable with imprisonment
for life, as are marriages,
civil partnerships and cohabitation between people of the same sex.
Sanjida gave private
lessons to Shibronty. After their
flight, the father of the younger girl reported his
daughter missing. The police found and arrested them
in Mahammadpur (Dhaka),
where they had rented a house. It is
at that point that the two girls confessed the truth to
the agents: they were in love
and were married, exchanging garlands of flowers, as
required by the Hindu tradition.
In Bangladesh, people belonging to the
LGBT community (Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) range between 1.6 and 4.8 million. They are not recognized and receive no form of social, religious or legal support and are often victims of persecution.